Most Inkpot members would agree that our little group, which\nmeets in a pub once a month, offers more than just creative writing. It\u2019s an\noutlet, a safe space in which to express ourselves in confidence \u2013 to seek\nguidance, advice and more often, encouragement (and not just in our writing.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, when our group disbanded last month, we turned to \u2018Zoom\u2019 and had our second successful virtual meet last night. It\u2019s tricky to master, with plenty of stopping and starting, time-delay issues and people dropping off and dropping back in (plus refills of tea, wine and chocolate \u2013 oh yes!),<\/em> but we did manage to share some pretty remarkable stuff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our homework included making a collage of words and phrases\nyou find around your house. Two members created stunning pieces (one entirely\nfrom an issue of Top Gear and a glue gun). Another locked herself in her toilet\n(home-schooling drives you to it) and amused herself finding contradictions on\nlabels of bathroom products. One lady metaphorically pulled apart common brand\nnames and created characters in an operatic tale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second exercise was entitled \u2018unpacking\u2019. A teacher\nwrote about the bag full of marking gremlins which load him down as he arrives\nhome in gale force winds (nice use of pathetic fallacy there). Others wrote of\ntheir fears about frozen food defrosting, social dilemmas, family issues \u2013 or just\nstuff<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n One member came to the group with a beautiful captured moment spent listening to a story with her young family in the garden, which is for the first time still and peaceful, owing to the reduction of traffic in the road which runs alongside them. The poem is gorgeous and lingered with me long after we\u2019d finished up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was such a treat to enjoy so much creativity and be\nallowed just a glimpse into what matters to each of our members. I woke up\nfeeling refreshed, invigorated, excited even \u2013 about possibilities, silver\nlinings and how privileged I am to have this little pocket of escapism which I\ncan delve into whenever the mood strikes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For more information about Inkpot<\/a> or starting a\ncreative writing group in your area, do get\nin touch<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most Inkpot members would agree that our little group, which meets in a pub once a month, offers more than just creative writing. It\u2019s an outlet, a safe space in which to express ourselves in confidence \u2013 to seek guidance, advice and more often, encouragement (and not just in our writing.) So, when our group disbanded last month, we turned to \u2018Zoom\u2019 and had our second successful virtual meet last night. It\u2019s tricky to master, with plenty of stopping and starting, time-delay issues and people dropping off and dropping back in (plus refills of tea, wine and chocolate \u2013 oh yes!), but we did manage to share some pretty remarkable stuff. Our homework included making a collage of words and phrases you find around your house. Two members created stunning pieces (one entirely from an issue of Top Gear and a glue gun). Another locked herself in her toilet (home-schooling drives you to it) and amused herself finding contradictions on labels of bathroom products. One lady metaphorically pulled apart common brand names and created characters in an operatic tale. The second exercise was entitled \u2018unpacking\u2019. A teacher wrote about the bag full of marking gremlins which load him down as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,5],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vicpickup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/collage-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vicpickup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vicpickup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vicpickup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vicpickup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vicpickup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vicpickup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194,"href":"https:\/\/vicpickup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vicpickup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vicpickup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vicpickup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vicpickup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}